Near East, Byzantine Empire, ca. 9th to 12th century CE. A trio of large cast bronze pendants: two crosses and one in the shape of a wheel. One of the crosses has a flattened form with flared arms; the other has five round inlay areas, four of them with remaining blue-green glass. Concentric circles have been incised shallowly into the face. The third pendant is in the shape of a wheel with a large loop for suspension. The wheel shape may be in homage to St. Catherine of Alexandria, famously sentenced to be tortured to death on a breaking wheel. St. Catherine was an incredibly popular saint during the medieval period and the iconography of her wheel appears in Byzantine, Russian, and European art. Size of largest (wheel): 3.55" W (9 cm)

Provenance: private collection of a Munich, Germany clergyman (F.X.E.), acquired in 1985

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#121934

All have bronze patina. Both crosses have losses to their loops for suspension. The wheel retains its loop for suspension but has lost one of its four decorative loops. Four of the five glass inlays on one of the crosses have been reattached.